ROAR OF THE LION. 
11 
hearing is very acute, but his sense of smell would 
not appear to be very nice. Indeed, to judge by 
Gerard’s adventures with the beast, which, by his 
account, often approached to within a very few 
paces of him. without being at all aware of his pre¬ 
sence, it would not seem as if his olfactory nerves 
served him in any very great stead. 
The roar of the lion—perhaps one of the most 
remarkable characteristics, so to say, of the animal 
•—is fearful, and when heard in the night time, 
whether in the desert or the forest, impresses 
one with something like awe. It much resembles 
distant thunder. The Arabs of Northern Africa 
have, indeed, only a single word to express his 
voice, and that is Rad, or thunder. 
When, however, people speak of the roar of the 
lion, it is to be presumed they have in their mind’s 
eye the low, hollow, and half suppressed sigh, or 
groan, that one so often hears in menageries. The 
roar of the animal in its wild state is something very 
different, and is truly terrific and appalling. But 
it is seldom heard in all its intensity; indeed, a 
friend of mine, who frequently hunted the beast in 
Southern Africa, only remembers hearing it twice, 
and I, for my part, on not more than half-a-dozen 
occasions. The lion’s roar, however, even under 
the mildest form, is most impressive and has not 
been inaptly likened to the efforts 6C to disgorge 
something from the throat.” 
The impression made on my own mind by the 
lion’s roar would seem to have been in great 
measure shared by other travellers, who, as my- 
